Urban Hydrologics is a consulting services practice that specializes in blue-green infrastructure and climate resilience for tropical cities. The group offers two primary service delivery arms: 1. a consulting services arm, which advises on nature-based solutions for inland and coastal infrastructures, and 2. a technology arm, which delivers innovations for water-sensitive communities, cities, and urban regions.
Pedro Santa served as the Lead Consultant for Coastal Resiliency and Blue-Green Infrastructure input for Bjarke Ingels Group’s Penang South Islands (PSI) 4500 acre Masterplan, from 2020-2021. The “Penang BiodiverCity” proposal was awarded first place in the international competition, out of 124 submissions from 26 countries. During the competition stage in Q1-Q2 2020, Pedro was appointed as the lead consultant to provide input to BIG while still serving a Senior Associate position at Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl Singapore. Once the full awarded consultancy was launched in Q4 2020, Pedro Santa was seconded by Ramboll and joined the Bjarke Ingels Group’s Landscape & Planning team to serve as the Local Project Manager in the Malaysian Time zone. His scope was to lead client engagement and direct Input for Stormwater Management and Nature-Based Solutions for Inland and Coastal Resiliency.
Project Credits: Bjarke Ingels Group, Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl, Hijjas, Gamuda Land, AJC, Walrus
Image source: penangpropertytalk.com, archdaily
On Dec 12th, 2020, Pedro Santa delivered a lecture presentation focused on Punggol Digital District, a Singapore project by RSD, where PJ Santa (Pedro J. Santa Rivera) served as the project manager and coordinator of blue-green infrastructure and water-sensitive urban design integration. The title of the presentation was “BIM for Landscape & Water Sensitive Urban Design Optimization”.
Continue readingAchieving a Resilient Coastline is Singapore’s peak blue-green infrastructure project. Living and working in Singapore since 2011, Pedro Santa of Urban Hydrologics has noticed that Singapore has mastered the application and implementation of blue-green infrastructure networks throughout its inland waterways, communities, and reservoirs. The coastline has yet to receive the same attention concerning using Nature-Based Solutions for coastal resilience and sea level rise adaptation. Pedro Santa states that the Coastline will be Singapore’s crowning achievement as the world’s leading blue-green resilient island. It holds massive potential as a culmination project for an island nation that strives for water resilience and ecological vibrancy. The coastline’s design and engineering can incorporate diverse natural elements. Urban Hydrologics’ has composed a menu of coastal defense ecologies most compatible with Singapore’s context, industries, and future-proofing aspirations. The hybrid coastal networks can incorporate recreational amenities, such as the Round Island Route, which Singapore plans for execution in the coming years. We are excited to be a part of Singapore’s Resilient Coastline transformation as a group focused on Holistic Water Resilience, inland and coastal.
In 2012, Atelier Dreiseitl was awarded first place for Kallang Riverside Landscape and Urban Hydrology Masterplan, where Pedro Santa served as the design lead for the competition proposal and subsequent consultancy. He crafted and sketched the visionary concept argument, that developers should avoid the “old paradigm” of urban development, where buildings impose themselves onto the landscape, and embrace a “new paradigm” where ecological landscape, & resilient infrastructure are prioritized.
In February 2012, Pedro Santa shared a stimulating conversation with formative influences: Timothy Beatley, Peter Newman, and Herbert Dreiseitl. The meeting took place at the newly built Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, and it was a fascinating discussion and meeting of the minds. The conversation also covered how decentralized water-sensitive urban design maximizes co-benefits for society, economy, and ecology.
Urban Hydrologics proposes that all Tropical Islands Nations strive to achieve Holistic Resilience. This approach considers the integration of inland and coastal adaptation to achieve high-performing results that stand the test of time. Global surface temperatures will exacerbate the storms and weather impacts on small islands and coastal watersheds. The Urban Hydrologics approach states that Holistic Resilience becomes a priority for planning adaptation solutions for Inland & Coastal communities and that existing hydrological networks begin to employ green infrastructure, coastal SLR/storm surge protection, and water-sensitive urban design elements in coastlines, rivers, corridors, ecological patches, parks, streetscapes, and plot/building scales.
Urban Hydrologics derives its inspirations and design language from the unique characteristics of fluvial geomorphology. The movement of water in nature creates inspiring forms. Scientific research within fluid mechanics helps us understand the mathematics of water, revealing the geometries and formal expressions which give us the inspiration to generate performative designs. Diverse reactions and interactions of water, from chemical, biological, and physical, all the way to molecular structures, are well understood by scientists. We propose to use these elegant forms to generate a unique language for urban systems, landscapes, networks, and products at diverse scales.
All surfaces of the city, from coastal to inland, should collect data through monitoring sensors to better understand vulnerabilities and focus resiliency investment. Such a data-driven approach will make risks abundantly clear before disasters happen. This prevention approach through visualization software will expedite the decision-making of governments and increase the adoption of nature-based solutions by the private sector. All nations, cities, public, and private entities need to work together to help fund our efforts to develop an Urban-Hydrologics-Systems-Software.
The UHS Data-Driven Approach proposes to create computer-aided replicas of our cities, to allow running scenarios, and to test how the urban fabric responds to weather extremes. At the moment, this UHS Software does not yet exist, and we look to patent this software approach, develop proper computer code to enable an Urban-Hydrologics-Systems’ platform for cities and municipalities to buy as a dedicated prevention service in the near future. We hope this UHS Software can help link the physical world with the BIM data world. If we are successful in creating this software solution, we will be able to provide solid data to municipalities, and increase investment in Urban Hydro Logic Solutions before weather extremes do arrive. Our objective is to demonstrate impacts (advocacy through visualization) to ensure governments recognize what’s needed, a “pre-active approach” (UHS, 2009). We hope to speed up the retrofitting of cities, communities, industries, infrastructures, and processes to ensure we can meet IPCC targets before runaway climate change becomes irreversible.